Three Apple engineers have applied for a patent that suggests that the company is at least considering working on a new Apple Pencil, capable of being used outside the confines of an iPad, on any flat surface or in the air.

Over the years, Apple has amassed personnel and materials to become a chip design juggernaut, with a new report claiming that Apple is including the T-series chip in forthcoming Mac models including a laptop refresh and a new desktop model, and has its eyes on replacing Intel as the supplier of the Mac CPU.

The state of California has now permitted Apple to have 27 self-driving cars on its public roads, as the company expands its homegrown automated driving technology, internally known as "Project Titan."

Early testers of Apple's upcoming HomePod have shared screenshots of customizable settings for the speaker, which will be configured through the iOS Home app. Users will be able to disable features such as "Hey Siri," and the lighted display on top of the unit.

The HomePod was previously scheduled to hit the market before the end of last year, but Apple issued a statement in November saying it needed more time before the product is ready for customers, giving it an "early 2018" release date.

Kopi has launched a range of smart home accessories and security devices compatible with HomeKit at CES, including a central security hub, contact sensors, a smoke and carbon monoxide detector, and a motion sensor with a built-in LED for illumination.

Patriot Memory launched a new external storage device at CES, with the Evlvr Thunderbolt 3 Portable SSD boasting high writing and reading performance in a compact package, one that is also claimed to be power efficient as well as fast.

A new Thunderbolt 3 chipset has arrived called "Titan Ridge" that supports not only DisplayPort 1.4, but it also provides to vendors the ability to allow peripherals to fall back on USB 3.1 speeds if not connected to a Thunderbolt 3 host.

Dock and accessory producer Plugable introduced the Thunderbolt 3 480GB NVMe Solid State Drive at CES, an external storage device that takes advantage of the high bandwidth of Thunderbolt 3 connections to offer fast transfers in a highly portable form factor.

This year was somewhat uncharacteristic for Apple in terms of product announcements, as the company unveiled or preannounced a number of new devices that didn't actually ship in 2017. Rather than needing to rely on rumors or guesswork, we can tell you with a greater degree of certainty that these products are officially on the horizon from Apple.

At the start of 2017, it was thought that Apple was falling behind other companies in developing virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) related technologies in its products. By the end of the year, Apple has taken small steps towards establishing itself in the VR industry, but it has made great strides in the field of AR, with ARKit being the main driver for its progress.

After years of no updates to Apple's "Pro" desktop line, the company uncharacteristically made some public statements in April about a forthcoming line refresh, which led to the iMac Pro's release in December. But, the remarks made may or may not ultimately lead to what Apple fans want to see.